A piercing yelp cut through the woods as the doe crashed sideways into the bushes and Orin was thrown free. She missed the bushes completely, unfortunately landing against the stubborn roots that ran like veins through the forest floor, but at least she did not get trapped beneath the deer’s crushing weight during the fall. As her side hit the ground, her legs splayed out to catch herself, but she still rolled twice before coming to a stop. Her ribs hit the earth hard, and the wind had been knocked from her lungs.
Determined to recover quickly she leaped back to her paws, aided by the adrenaline coursing through her fiber. She thrust herself through the thicket and landed on the deer’s side, going dead-weight across its forelegs to try to keep any dangerous hooves from cracking Niro’s bones. To hold herself in place she dug her teeth into the shoulder once more. Trapped beneath Niro’s capable jaws, the deer could not even make a final, mournful cry.
It wasn’t long until the exhausted animal began to still beneath them. Orin’s ears cupped towards the deer and she listened to the sound of the small, raspy gasps it tried to make, though they were slight and few with Niro cutting off most of its breath; could feel the slowing pulse of lifeblood as it trickled out of the wounds until the heart came to its final, lurching beat. Finally the legs stopped twitching beneath her, and she leg go of her hold on the doe’s shoulder. She backpedaled, favoring a forepaw. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth in a pant as she lowered her haunches and sat, tail curling around her paws. “Good work, brother,” she panted. “I didn’t actually think we could do it. I thought it was going to be boar for sure.”